Telecommunications networks presently offer a number of different services to their subscribers. Such services (and their features) include, for example, 800 service (automatic call distribution (ACD), call queuing, interactive announcements, digit collection, etc.), virtual private networks (abbreviated dialing, authorization codes, caller privileges, etc.) and plain old telephone service (call waiting, call forwarding, automatic call back, etc.).
Currently, a switch in a telecommunications network processes a telephone call in accord with the services associated with only one of the parties involved in the telephone call. For example, if a called party is a subscriber of a particular service, e.g., an 800 service, then the switch processes the call in accordance with that service without considering the telephone services subscribed to by the calling party.
The value-added services (e.g., 700 number, 800 number and 900 number services) are designed for mass calling to a service provider ("sponsor") number wherein the calling party generally pays for the call. The 900 number services (e.g., DIAL-IT.RTM. 900-service offered by AT&T) allow sponsors to offer a variety of value-added telecommunication services (Dial-A-Prayer, Televoting, etc.), to their clientele ("calling party") for which additional charges are assessed. To access the service, the calling party dials, illustratively, a 1-900-NXX-XXXX number and is routed to a Carrier Switch Network ("CSN") Mass Announcement System ("MAS") where the calling party listens to the sponsor's prerecorded announcement. At present, the sponsors select the rate callers will pay for the service when the 900 number is assigned by the CSN.
The 900 number and the rate selected by a sponsor are stored in a table in a CSN billing system. When a call is made to a sponsor's 900 number, the central office switch in the Local Exchange Company ("LEC") makes a call record including the calling and called party of each call. These call records are transported periodically (typically every month) from the LEC to the CSN, and rated using the appropriate sponsor's rate table. This rating process involves a table look-up process to determine each calling party's charge for a call to a particular sponsor's number. The resulting calling party charge record is then returned to the LEC which includes the charges as part of the calling party's monthly telephone bill.
In accordance with billing methods and apparatus of the prior art, the calling party is billed for charges incurred during a call made over a communication network to a sponsor location (equivalently referred to herein as called party) by: 1) establishing an Integrated Services Digital Network ("ISDN") call connection between the network and the called party location; 2) the network transmitting the caller's identification number to the called location, over that same ISDN connection; and 3) the network receiving from the called location, again over that same ISDN connection, billing information specifying charges incurred by the calling party during the call.
This arrangement provides the sponsor with more flexibility in billing callers for a sponsor's value-added services. Billing flexibility is achieved in accordance with the prior art by creating a separate billing record for each call using sponsor-provided call billing parameters which can be updated during the call by the sponsor. Desirably, determining sponsor charges and creating a billing record on a call-by-call basis eliminates the need for the table look-up procedure required by other call billing methods.
Another billing arrangement known to applicants which also solves the previously-described problems is described in the allowed patent application of I. Benyacar, et al., Ser. No. 509,662 filed on Apr. 16, 1990, and entitled "Method and Apparatus for the Billing of Value-Added Communication Calls." The Benyacar application, however, solves these problems by enabling the called-party location to access the network's operations support system (DSD-NCP 180 of FIG. 1) substantially in real time to specify call rating data and other associated call rate modifiers. In Benyacar, call rating information is sent to the network's operations support system via a separate connection which is different from the calling-to-called-party location connection, whereas, according to other methods, call billing information is sent to the network's billing recording toll switch (e.g., the terminating toll switch) (TTS/SN 160 of FIG. 1) using the same calling-to-called-party location connection.
Also described in accordance with various features of the prior art, caller charges may be specified as call billing parameters which may be changed in real time during the call and which may vary depending on the call type, time-of-day, geographic region, etc. These called party or sponsor-specified caller charges are then incorporated into the standard Automated Message Accounting ("AMA") record generated by the CSN for each call and sent to a network billing system which processes the sponsor-specified caller charges for inclusion in the network bill sent to the customer.
New CSN services now provide the sponsor more flexibility in defining their services by routing the value-added calls to a sponsor-selected location. One such service is the MultiQuest.RTM. telecommunications service offered by AT&T.
AT&T has patented a technology that is referred to as MultiQuest.RTM. in U.S. Pat. No. 5,187,710. It is for use by 900/976 number service providers at only those locations licensed and equipped to use AT&T's ISDN Primary Rate Interface. Vari-A-Bill.RTM., a service of MultiQuest.RTM., is an addition to conventional ISDN capabilities.
The Vari-A-Bill.RTM. system allows the licensee's equipment to signal price changes to the AT&T network over a separate channel while a call to the 900-number is in progress. Five flexible options may be invoked: 1) Free call, i.e., no charge for the entire call; 2) Flat Charge, i.e., the price of the call is fixed at a set fee; 3) New Rate, i.e., the per minute rate can be changed upward and downward; 4) Premium charge, i.e., this would be a flat charge added to the per minute rate; and 5) Premium credit, i.e., this refers to a flat amount to be deducted from the total price of the call (The total price would not go below $0).
Therefore, without ISDN or the teachings found in Benyacar, U.S. Pat. No. 5,003,584, the needed billing account information was only able to be assembled from several disparate sources after the call was completed (too late to deny unbillable services).
These new services enable a sponsor to provide a greater variety of value-added services which may now include interactive dialog between the caller and the sponsor's agent. Moreover, there is a continuing need for the CSN to add more flexible billing for these sponsor-provided value-added services.